Elizabeth Banks Joins Diane Lane In ‘West Of Memphis’ Director Amy Berg’s ‘Every Single Thing’

Coming off the wave of acclaim surrounding her Sundance hit, the documenatry “West of Memphis ” earlier this year, director Amy Berg has wasted no time using that momentum to secure her follow-up and narrative feature debut, the drama “Every Secret Thing.” Before Berg's involvement, the film had been stalled in development hell, with the only constants being Nicole Holofcener’s script, Frances McDormand as producer, and Diane Lane in the film’s lead, but now two more items have appeared to make the production a definite reality.

While Berg has been busy at TIFF attending screenings of 'Memphis,' the director has obviously pulled double-duty for her upcoming feature, as it was announced via a press release that the film had found financing through a number of sources, and also added actress Elizabeth Banks to the cast.  Based off the stand-alone book by author Laura Lippmann (of the popular Tess Monaghan series), the film follows two 18-year-old girls fresh out of prison, looking to move beyond their crime at age 11 of killing a child, only to have blame directed right back toward them when neighborhood kids begin disappearing shortly thereafter.

This type of murder-centric mystery is normally Lane’s playground, as seen in her genre flicks “Unfaithful” and “Hollywoodland,” but really it’s Banks who should turn in a interesting performance here, as the film seems quite different to her usual roles. Also, while the somewhat-contrived narrative set-up may not initially inspire the highest of hopes, Berg’s measured direction, alongside Holofcener’s script should hopefully prove an ideal pairing, and one that will definitely be worth a look when “Every Single Thing” finally begins filming in February 2013.